Well, if my deal goes down, I'll have one in a couple days. I'm in the process of buying one. I have an SMS and a DSR, but your vids and the ones Joe from shakedown posted recently have made me lust for a bluesmaster. They sound so good to me.

Counterstriker, I just watched your vid...sounds fantastic. I've been following your progress on here for a few years now and your chops have come right along nicely. I wish I started playing at your age instead of waiting till I was almost 30. Back to gear....is you BM modded at all or 100% stock? The one I'm grabbing has some Jerry mods as do all my other amps. Also which output are you using to your power amp? And what's the caninetulator all about? I'm new to the Bluesmaster world...I need a little background on how this thing works. Is that JBL an E or a K? Sounds sweet either way. Thanks for your help. You can PM me if you want.

Here's mine - modded by Joe from Shakedown Amps. There seems to be a renewed interest in these and as I just got home today from being away for almost a month I didn't have the energy to put a video together so I am using Joe's. Anyway, he did some great work on it and the sound is tip top but there is still some issue with it - maybe a bad op-amp or filter cap or something. It will work like a champ and then start crackling and dropping the signal. Someone mucked around with it before it got to me (or Joe) and did a bit of damage so I really do need to find someone who is willing to take the time to go through it cap by cap and figure out what the issue is, But when she sings.... o so lovely. Hope you dig it.

Hey man, mines unmodded, i have a hammond tube from an old hammond a100. Similiar to an NOS RCA. I use the cabnetulator output, because it takes some of the harshness out is all it really does. Its supposed to mimic the sound a 4x12 celestion being mic'd. It's the hughes and kettner "Redbox" inside the preamp. I switched the spring reverb to large hall lastnight at a gig and it took the harshness out of the tone and sounded wonderful.

That issue your talking about CMC, i had the same issue with my last one its the transformer and the bad part is it can't be fixed, or it would be pricey to fix since its a custom one for such a small preamp. Just let air flow get to it because i found it would drop the signal if it got to hot! I have mine on a rack tray with holes in it with 2 spaces above it so it has "breathing room" these little guys get hot.

Why would one mod this gem? Listen to the original versions on youtube. They have far more of a jerry tone than the shakedown or other mods. Just because your changing curtain cap and resistors to higher grades and jerry quality. This insn't an ab763 64-67 twin board.http://youtu.be/keeZ1KjPiXc

I just put together a Bluesmaster rig (following a John K performance at the Capital Theater that blew me away)… anyway, I'm curious about others comments regarding the heat these little units put out - mine gets super hot running in the rack set-up I have… I realize there are real tubes running in there, but you all think this is fairly normal?

Why would you upgrade these? Thats like saying why would you upgrade anything cheaply mass produced? Its all made with cheap pots,caps,resistors etc. They also utilize an opamp for driving the signal. All of these things will degrade sound purity especially in the high end. All the reissue Fenders..almost all Preamps out there including some of the most revered on here can see some nice improvement with the upgrades. When playing clean with hi fi speakers like jbls its definitely nice to know your trebles arent brittle and unfocused because it really shows in these rigs. Some people just arent used to what a great pure note should or can sound like because their ears just havent spent the time around really nice gear and the before and after sounds in upgraded gear. I personally dont like playing through cheap chassis, pots, and caps..especially the cheap ceramic discs that are found in all the HnKs and all Fender reissues. ~Joe

I played mine through a twin reverb size sealed cabinet with 12" and 10" JBLs. That little thing is loud! The drummer noticed two things: my Strat never sounded cleaner, and it is easier to get the Bluesmaster to sound like a Tweed Deluxe than vice versa.

The cabinet belongs to my brother, who claims to have another JBL hiding in the house. I told him to start digging.

I found a 15" JBL. A 13 ply Birch cabinet is being built for it. With some pedals: reverb, delay, boss ce and eh small stone chorus,qtron, and blues driver, I should get that snappy bright tone at a decent volume with the H&K.